The 12 best festival gadgets

With festival season approaching fast, we've rounded up eleven of the best festival gadgets that'll help you stay charged, stay entertained, and capture your whole experience on camera for you to look back on in a less intoxicated state.

Best festival gadgets: Braven BRV-1 speaker

Braven's BRV-1 portable speaker is designed to withstand the elements, so is perfect for keeping the music going at festivals even when the artists aren't on the stage. It's water-resistant, and has rubberised shock-absorbing exterior to ensure durability for the more adventurous user. The device is wireless, with up to 12 hours of Bluetooth audio streaming time, and also acts as a speakerphone with a built-in noise cancelling microphone. Additionally, you can use the BRV-1 to charge your iPhone, and a battery check indicator lets you know how much battery life the speaker has left.

Braven's BRV-1 portable speaker is designed to withstand the elements, so is perfect for keeping the music going at festivals even when the artists aren't on the stage. It's water-resistant, and has rubberised shock-absorbing exterior to ensure durability for the more adventurous user. The device is wireless, with up to 12 hours of Bluetooth audio streaming time, and also acts as a speakerphone with a built-in noise cancelling microphone. Additionally, you can use the BRV-1 to charge your iPhone, and a battery check indicator lets you know how much battery life the speaker has left.

Best festival gadgets: Soulra BoostSolar

One of the biggest issues at festivals is battery life. You'll be using your iPhone to take photos, record videos, call your lost friends and check what the musicians are writing on Twitter, so it's bound to drain your battery. But with no power sockets to be found in your tent, how can you charge it back up?

That's where the solar-powered Boost Solar backup battery pack comes in handy. In addition to helping you charge your iPhone using only the sun's rays, it's also rugged and splashproof, so it should withstand most festival conditions. It can charge your iPad, too.

Best festival gadgets: EasyAcc 15,000mAh Power Bank

EasyAcc makes some great tech products at amazing prices and this power pack for your portable devices is no exception. 15,000mAh basically translates as 5x the size of the average smartphone battery, so claims it can, for example, charge an iPhone 6 5.5 times before running out of juice.

It’s got 3 separate USB ports that you can use simultaneously, so if you and your mates insist on using smartphones for the whole of Glastonbury, this could well turn out to be an excellent purchase.

Best festival gadgets: Mophie Juice Pack range

Mophie has a great range of battery pack cases if you’re an iPhone or Samsung Galaxy user and want another full charge on the go as easily as possible. Available for iPhone 5/5S, iPhone 6/6S, iPhone 6 Plus/6S Plus, the Galaxy S6/S6 edge and soon the Galaxy S7/S7 edge, there are several different variants in the Juice Pack line depending on your phone, with prices starting at £49.95, providing between 60-120% extra battery capacity.

The packs are attractive and ergonomically designed to ensure you get the power you need without turning your beautiful phone into an ugly brick.

Best festival gadgets: Apple Smart Battery Case

Although Mophie has been doing it for years, Apple recently launched this, its own battery case for the iPhone 6/6S and 6 Plus/6S Plus. Unusually for a battery case, it is one piece and isn’t made of hard plastic. You can slip your phone into the silicon case and into the Lightning connector. It also charges over Lightning, unlike most over battery cases that still use Micro USB, so you only need your regular Apple cable.

It works very well and is typically intuitive for an Apple product, with two battery statuses for both your phone and your case. It should give you up to 25 hours more power, meaning you can fit in a fair few extra Instagram posts of sunsets and cider.

Best festival gadgets: Floatable Waterproof Dry Bag

So you've committed to taking your smartphone to a festival, fair play - but you may want to consider protecting it from the elements (or an unplanned drop into a toilet) with this waterproof case.

Rather than a normal clip on phone case, this is a fully waterproof, floating dry bag. If you accidentally drop your beloved phone (it fits all sizes of touchscreen smartphone with screen size up to 7in diagonally) into a muddy puddle at least it wont sink! The touchscreen is fully operational through the transparent plastic front too.

It even has an audio jack built in to attached headphones, so you can keep it useful all year round.

Best festival gadgets: Fitbit Flex

With all that dancing you'll be doing, you might be interested in the Fitbit Flex fitness tracker to help you keep track of how many steps you've taken, how many calories you've burned, and even how well you've slept (if you slept at all).

The Fitbit Flex fits around your wrist, so you won't be worrying about losing it, and it should last for a full five days without needing to be recharged. It's waterproof too, so no need to take it off if it starts raining.

With a handy silent alarm that vibrates to wake you up, you'll be able to make sure that you don't oversleep too.

Best festival gadgets: Xiaomi Mi Band 1S Pulse

If you fancy tracking your (obscenely high) step count and (severe lack of) sleep this festival season but don’t want to spend the earth, look no further. The Xiaomi Mi Band 1S Pulse is truly exceptional value for money for what it can do.

Costing a ridiculous £20, this new updated version released in 2015 also comes with a heart rate monitor. When paired to a smartphone it can also be set up to vibrate when you receive a call or message, as well as act as an alarm clock. When useful gadgets come this cheap, and with month-long battery life perfect for festivals, it comes highly recommended.

Best festival gadgets: Nokia 215

If all the expenditure and faff of keeping a smartphone going all the way through a 5-day festival isn’t for you then here is the alternative – a so-called ‘dumbphone’. However, there’s nothing dumb about this decision when the 215 claims to offer 20 hours of talk time and 29 days standby time. It even features basic internet connectivity and built-in, optimised versions of Facebook, Facebook Messenger and Twitter.

When you’re scrabbling around for the zip to your tent at 3am it’s also got a handy built in torch, and it feels just as hardy as the classic Nokia phones of the 2000s, so you can chuck it in a bag without worrying. You can pick one up for under a tenner – true value right here.

You might even keep using it after you get home…

Best festival gadgets: Kodak disposable camera 2 pack

These will go nicely with your budget Nokia – why risk breaking your beloved smartphone mid crowd surf by snapping that perfect shot on one of these two disposable cameras? Working out at about £7 and 39 exposures each, pre-digital tech such as this shouldn’t be completely left out of your options if you’re a festivalgoer that doesn’t want to worry about smashing your iPhone during the Chemical Brothers (which, really, should be all of us).

Best festival gadgets: Biolite Camping Stove

This one's pretty unusual but rather cool. The Biolite Camping Stove lets you cook a tasty meal (or not so tasty depending on your cooking skills), helps you stay warm, and charges your iPhone at the same time.

It uses an internal fan to create airflow, which combines with the fuel chamber to create fire, the heat from which is converted into electricity using the Power Module to help keep your iPhone charged.

Optional Camping Stove accessories include the Kettlepot (for a nice cuppa) and the Grille BBQ Attachment for cooking a good burger or sausage.

Best festival gadgets: Lava BrightSounds

Smart lightbulbs are the latest addition to the smart home, but what about when you're away from home? We love this Lava BrightSounds smart lamp and portable Bluetooth speaker, and reckon its one of the best gadgets you'll take camping this year.

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